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ARMONK, N.Y. -- Sylvie Binder, a 16-year-old Armonk resident, traveled to Bourges, France for 10 days to represent the United States at the World Cadet-Junior Fencing Championships on April 1.

Binder, currently the highest ranked women’s cadet under 17 foil fencer in the country, is a two-time Cadet World Team member and earned Team USA’s first women’s foil gold medal at Worlds since 2010. In 2015, Binder ended her first Cadet Worlds with a bronze medal.

On her way to becoming the 2016 Cadet World Champion, Binder defeated every fencer she faced. In the gold medal final, Binder beat Sera Azuma of Japan by a score of 15-12 in a see-saw battle that had at least two lead changes.

“Azuma was a solid athlete and fencer...I just kept my momentum up and was driven by the reality that this was it for me – my last Cadet Worlds – that this was a once-in a lifetime opportunity and I had to stay focused and fence the best I can. Fortunately, it worked and I am so proud to bring home the gold for the USA, my club, my family and me," said Binder.

Binder joins an elite list of US women to hold the Cadet World titles in women’s foil. The following day, Binder and five other teammates combined to win gold for the USA in the mixed team competition.

Binder capped her World Championship competition with a silver medal won as part of the USA’s women’s foil world junior team (U20) earning Binder her third medal of the event and giving her the distinction of the only fencer from the USA to earn three world medals at this year’s worlds.

Sylvie Binder has been fencing for nine years and trains at the Fencing Academy of Westchester (FAW) in Hawthorne. Her coaches are former two-time Olympian Slava Grigoriev and Anya Katkova. She is a junior at Byram Hills High School.